Genevieve’s Love: How Cannabis Compassion Created Our Family

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As we near the four-year mark as a family brought together by the beauty of the cannabis plant, as well as compassionate gifting of cannabis and cannabidiol (CBD), glancing back is so very beautiful.

While setting an alarm clock for an early morning trip on the cannabis compassion train back in August 2016, a mistake was made that forever changed our collective futures and created what people know today as The Cannabis Love Story. A mother in Santa Barbara was desperately in need of assistance for her 13-year-old daughter, Genevieve, who suffered from severe autism and epilepsy.

She decided to look up a man who was known for helping children in need with cannabis medicine. I was currently visiting a child celebrating two years without a seizure due to his use of CBD oils. And had no plans of stopping in Santa Barbara and no knowledge of the mom or the child in need–Genevieve. In setting that alarm clock, a move was made that was out of the norm–accidentally turning the sound on the phone. Once notifications were turned on, immediately there was an incoming message from this very distraught mother. “I need help. A friend of mine who makes vape carts brought me CBD for my daughter who has seizures all day long. She can’t go back to school and she’s severely autistic.” Anyone with experience with CBD knows that oils made for vape carts are very concentrated unlike the oils given to kids with autism and epilepsy. Panic hit as the thoughts raced through my mind, “What pharmaceuticals does she take? How much CBD does this mom have?” “Where do you live?” I asked.

Genevieve in 2013 before I came to see her for the first time

The mom, Anne Mari, answered: “Goleta, CA.” Often so buried with incoming messages and texts back then, one cell phone was dedicated just for looking up addresses. Sure enough, she lived on the way to where I was going. I had a low supply of oils on hand to treat my cancer. Without a doubt, doctors and most people that were aware of what I did had very little hope I’d live for long with multiple stage 4 cancers and severe epilepsy at the same time.

I always had oils on hand for personal use and, on this historic day, they became the precious gift from the earth that forever changed all of our lives. As we greeted each other at the door, there was a sense of urgency and panic. The sounds of a seizure are easy to recognize since I have severe epilepsy like Genevieve. In 1995, a high-speed professional auto racing wreck sealed my fate while also providing a sense of gratitude to be alive, allowing compassion to become second nature. When I heard this girl fighting to breathe, I rushed by her mom and found her on the floor seizing. Quickly pulling out the cannabis oil, a “rescue” was made in which small amounts of concentrated cannabis oil are dropped into the mouth of a seizing individual.

Genevieve not only stopped seizing but she got up and walked to her room. It didn’t take long to find out from her excited mom that she didn’t normally walk through the house well. “I put these sheets on the floor because she’ll lay there and I don’t want her to get dirty,” she explained. “Genevieve seizes at least 25 times a day with grand mals; they’re really bad and we don’t know how many other types of seizures she has because they were immeasurable in the hospital, there were so many.” We sat down together and went over the pharmaceuticals doctors had put her young teenage daughter on.

This photo was taken the day we met. At that time Genevieve was nearly completely noncommunicative.

I looked at the multiple medications that all came with seizure precautions. Nearly 20% of kids with autism have or will develop epilepsy–this isn’t news. That day, half of Genevieve’s medications were discontinued and the cannabis oils that were in my front pocket were given to Anne Mari. “I can’t take your oils, you have cancer,” she stated as I began to laugh. “I’ll have more by tomorrow morning. Take it and I’ll come back next month and bring her more,” I said. A month later, after extensive contact with Anne Mari, news came that Genevieve’s iPad had broken. On the day we met, she used her iPad to tell us both “I feel happy” with her icon-to-speech program that severely autistic kids often use.

The need to get her another one stung hard, so the wheels were set in motion to get to Santa Barbara immediately so this child who started talking after using oils could have her device again. On day one of using cannabis oils, Genevieve became a child unlike any photo I’d viewed of her and unlike what her mom, doctor, and family had witnessed for years. For the compassion provider, it was just another kid doing well because of cannabis. But for her family, it was a miracle in the making. And when I brought the iPad along with more oils, Anne Mari felt obligated to show me downtown Santa Barbara.

It was hardly what anyone could consider a date but, on September 25, 2016, we shared our first kiss, and, so, our love story began. A month later, I made another trip to Santa Barbara and then began visiting Anne Mari and Genevieve regularly. By Christmas, we planned to spend the entire two-week break together–and not just because we were dating. Genevieve’s dad had passed due to an opioid overdose. We spent those two weeks together as a couple and a family.

A photo from November 2016 – this is from Anne Mari’s Birthday, our 3rd date.

Soon, Christmas and New Year’s went by and it was time to get back on the road. By January 10th, the compassion train was calling, and away I went. Only two days later, texts started pouring in of videos and photos. “She’s watching Homer Simpson on one iPad and looking at photos of you on my cell phone; pointing back and forth she’s verbalizing Daddy!” Anne Mari shared. This is a child who rarely had said mommy–but she was asking for me. What a humbling honor this was! A child locked away in her own world of severe autism and epilepsy had found a way out of it and did so with the oils brought to her with compassion and love.

All that these fingers could type back was “I’m on my way.” I booked Amtrak for a 14-hour trip back to my girls. It’s been over three years since that date and so many people wonder how this beautiful story came to be. Many will read social media posts or watch videos and never realize that Genevieve isn’t my biological child–never knowing this is the product of plant medicine, love, compassion, and giving.

We’ve been through our highs and lows as a family with Anne Mari and I facing our own substance issues. Pharmaceutical opioids were a mainstay in my diet and had to go; I couldn’t leave my daughter without a dad–again. Her mom had used alcohol much more than was acceptable in her mind, so together we became a home that’s sober with cannabis. Both of us are very involved in addiction recovery groups online, and Anne Mari is active offline as well.

Just last week we celebrated Sydney, Genevieve’s Sister, turning 10 years old. She had just turned 6 weeks before we met.

Through the years, Genevieve’s love for carousels has created beautiful memories for us. She loves the ride so much that Carousel Challenge, Inc., a California 501 c3 nonprofit, was created to build a Carousel Village Developmental Center in Santa Barbara to give her and the community a beautiful place to work and find pride. We also created Genevieve’s Dream, Inc., a CA Corp., to fund the building of the center via the creation of a specific formula made and named after her from cannabigerol (CBG), an emerging minor cannabinoid that “Genbug” thrives on. What better way, we thought, to fund her nonprofit than by creating a cultivar and oil to provide to the world–a next-level cannabinoid medicine product with profits that go toward funding a place for people like her.

At Circus Circus in November 2019, we held the first “Carousel Challenge” event for her nonprofit. After seeing the need for funding on a large scale for the plan to build a developmental center called the “Carousel Village” we made the decision to create “Genevieve’s Dream, Inc.” to fund it all.

When I first met Genevieve, she was functioning at a cognitive age of fewer than five years old. Today, she’s nearly age-appropriate with full comprehension. She’s 16 and has gained a decade of cognitive growth in only 3 years. She’s potty training a month before her 17th birthday, which is literally unheard of in the world of severe autism. She’s pharmaceutical-free and has been for over two years with cannabinoid medicine running her entire healthcare protocol. Everyone, from her family, doctors, teachers, and behavioral staff, talks about plant-derived medicine and how it’s been nothing short of a miracle for Genevieve.

The day I met Genevieve, her mom asked me to be her Educational Advocate as she was no longer allowed to go back to school due to the seizures. That job was never necessary because of how fast cannabis oils changed her life. Instead, I became daddy, protector, provider, and the one she calls out to. Having a child-like Genevieve is a blessing beyond words. Full remission from all cancers is upon me, life is back. Genevieve’s Dream is no longer thinking about a carousel– now it’s two corporations working toward building one specifically for her and utilizing the beautiful hemp plant to make the medicine named after her to pave the way.

Our family is one that was made from, lives off of, and will survive due to love. At this time we’re in the midst of a large compassion giveaway where over 100,000,000mg of CBD and CBG are being sent out from our home after being donated by the industry. The entire family is involved in packaging and sending help to the world in hopes that what we encountered will fall upon others–healing, happiness, and the most important element–love.